Rekindled

Watch this video from the fantastic Tim Minchin and remember to take your canvas bags to the supermarket (or any other time you go shopping!).  If you are a bit forgetful like me, keep a stash near your coat or shoes, or you could even keep them in your car.

Plastic Facts:

• The world uses between 500 billion and 1.2 trillion plastic bags a year.
• Each plastic bag is used for approximately 12 – 20 minutes on average
• A plastic bag is expected to take at least 500 years to break down in landfill.
• Plastics do not biodegrade normally, they break down into smaller and smaller particles, which then contaminate soil and water, which is then ingested by animals and gets into the food chain, and as plastics have only been around since the 1950’s who knows what the effect of this will be.
• Many plastic bags do not end up in landfill and end up causing harm to wildlife, including marine animals.

For more info see:

• Plastic Bag Free Modbury
• Marine Conservation Society

Selfish: putting your own needs above the needs of others.

When you buy cheap clothes, you are putting your own needs above the needs of the sweatshop workers.

When you buy cheap bananas, coffee or chocolate, you are putting your own needs above the needs of the farmers who grew them.

When you buy factory farmed meat, you are putting your own needs above the needs of animals.

When you buy chemically farmed vegetables, you are putting your own needs above the needs of the soil and wildlife (we’ve all heard about the plight of honeybees).

When you buy cheap furniture, you are putting your own needs above forest ecosystems, including plants, animals and even people who depend on the forests to live.

Can you honestly say you are never selfish?

Recently The Guardian held a You ask, they answer session with Sony.  I asked the following question:

Here is Sony’s response:

The first link they give is to a press release on their own website, stating the results of Stuff Magazine’s consumer survey, which showed that consumers perceive Sony products to be the most reliable and trustworthy electronics brand (note that it doesn’t actually prove that they are the most reliable, just that people think they are).

The second link is to an interview with William McDonough (one of the pioneers of cradle to cradle, along with Michael Braungart).  He explains the concepts of sustainable design really well, but, as he says “just being interested in the concept doesn’t mean much if you don’t take action”.  It seems that Sony are beginning to take steps in the right direction, with trials in Japan and recycling crushed CDs and DVDs into new products, and I hope that this will continue and expand into the future.

This weekend I finally switched to a green electricity supplier.  That means I will be buying electricity from renewable sources like windmills.  The the three biggest and best known of these companies are Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy.  There are also two newer companies called LoCO2 and OVO.  The Green Energy Marketplace has a really handy guide to green energy tariffs, and has even ranked them from 1 -5 stars (although there aren’t currently any 5 star rated suppliers).

I didn’t even consider signing up to a so-called green tariff with one of the mainstream energy suppliers.  They are required by law to buy a certain amount of energy from renewable sources, so in effect their green tariffs are charging you extra for something they would have to do anyway.  It may mean that you are getting more renewable energy, but it also means that everyone else (on a standard tariff) is getting less.  It certainly isn’t going to make any difference in the long term.

So which of the other green electricity tariffs is best?  It’s not a clear cut decision.  There are two main types: one that buys 100% green energy from the grid and sells it to you, and one that buys a mix of green and brown but invests in new sources of renewable energy.  I think both types make a valid contribution.  Companies that buy green energy from the grid encourage people to set up their own renewable energy projects.  This is a slower, more organic kind of growth in renewable energy.  However, I think that direct investment in new wind farms, for example, is going to make more of an impact more quickly.

In the end I decided to go with Ecotricity, on their slightly more expensive 100% renewable tariff.  They fall into the second category, and use all the money you spend on your energy bills to build new sources of renewable electricity, so each year they are using a bit more green and a bit less brown electricity.  Over the past 5 years that is an average of £450 per customer per year.  Their closest rival is Scottish Power, who invested a measly £27.65 per customer!  I’m not quite sure what happens to the money that Green Energy and Good Energy make because they didn’t invest anything at all.  Admittedly these stats do come from Ecotricity, but I cannot find any information on the Green Energy or Good Energy websites to contradict this.

PS. If you are thinking of switching to a green energy supplier and you decide to go with Ecotricity too, you can get 2 years’ free digital subscription to the Ecologist.

In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser explores the influence that the US fast food industry has had on the world. We all know that the rise of fast food has led to high levels of obesity, but the growth of the industry has also led to changes in agriculture, employment, politics, culture and more. Throughout the book, Schlosser shows that the real cost of fast food is not reflected in the price on the menu.

What I found most shocking was the way in which low wage, unskilled employees are treated, both in the restaurants and in the meatpacking industry. Meatpacking used to be highly skilled and highly paid work. It is now the most dangerous job in the United States. The workers seem to be regarded as virtually disposable. Their welfare doesn’t even register on the list of priorities for meatpacking firms – they are slaves to the speed of the factory lines. And the speed of those lines is not dictated by concerns for safety, but by profitability.

I was also amazed by the huge influence that major fast food chains have had on the political system.  They have a hypocritical obsession with the ‘free market’, opposing reforms in worker safety, food safety and minimum wage laws, whilst benefiting from enormous government subsidies.  It seems that it is all too easy for a large corporation to ‘buy’ politicians, so that they no longer truly represent the people who elected them.  In addition they have engaged in anti-competitive practices such as price fixing, wiping out numerous small businesses – doesn’t really sound much like a free market to me.

Fast food has also led to the rise of massive multinational agricultural corporations.  This has affected farming, with many small family farms being absorbed into these large firms, and farmers losing their independence, becoming wage slaves or even being forced off the land altogether.  The way that farmers are treated made me think of the Middle Ages, when the peasants who worked the land were virtually slaves to the landowners.

This is a must-read book.  It is both fascinating and shocking.  It has changed the way I think about fast food, and I will definitely think twice before buying another fast food meal.  But it also ends on a positive note, showing that fast food firms are capable of responding to consumer concerns and changing their ways.  An example of this is the removal of polystyrene packaging in the US and UK.  The people who run the industry, who make decisions, are not bad people, they’re just business people.  If enough people demand free range, organic food, they will provide it.

Rather than bombard you all with several tweets about offers this week, I’ve decided to put them into one blog post.

Clothes/Fashion: Ascension’s winter sale is now up to 60% off, with final reductions next week, and People Tree’s sale is now up to 75% off! Gossypium’s winter sale also continues with reductions on women’s, men’s and kids’ clothes.
This a great opportunity to get some ethical fashion at very affordable prices. New season items have also started to arrive so you can start to get ready for spring.

Gardening: Thompson and Morgan have got a great offer on potato planters. Get 3 planting bags plus 5 tubers each of Charlotte, Swift and Vivaldi, for only £14.99 (saving £6.17) – everything you need to get started growing potatoes! Plus they also have have a month by month What to Sow and Grow guide – very handy! It includes fruit, veg and also flowers.

Skin Care/Costmetics: Green People have some great BOGOF offers at the moment, including baby lotion, shower gel, body lotion and shampoo. You can also get free delivery on your first order. So Organic are offering 5% off all items with code VAT10.

Why is it that some large corporations seem to think they can do whatever they want in order to increase profits?  Their sole purpose seems to be making more and more money and they can end up behaving in ways that are completely unethical.

For example, Nestle (and other companies) continually breach international marketing guidelines on baby milk, leading to infant deaths and suffering around the world.  The International Marketing Code (1981) states that any marketing activity should not undermine breastfeeding, and yet many companies continually breach this code.  Nestle has consistently been the worst offender.

Breast milk is the best possible food for babies and the World Health Organisation recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed until 6 months of age whenever possible.  It contains all the nutrients a baby needs, as well as antibodies that help prevent childhood illnesses.  Increasing breastfeeding rates would help to decrease child mortality.  In addition, there is growing evidence that children who are breast fed are less likely to have health problems in their adult life.

In developing countries there are two further problems with the aggressive marketing of baby milk products.  Firstly, many mothers have to use dirty water to make up the formula.  There may be no facilities for sterilising the water, and even if there are, many people are unaware of the need to sterilise the water due to lack of education or illiteracy.  Secondly, formula costs money, unlike breast milk which is free.  If a family is living in poverty the mother may dilute the formula to make it go further, which leads to infant malnutrition.

So what exactly does ‘aggressive marketing’ mean?  Here are some real-life examples:

1. Supplying baby formula free of charge in hospitals to new mothers. Giving away baby milk for free is a good thing, right?  Unfortunately not.  Once a mother stops breastfeeding then her body will stop producing milk.  Once mother and baby leave the hospital, she has no choice but to continue using formula, but now she has to pay to feed her baby.  This practice was banned by the World Health Authority in 1994.
2. Selling baby formula with labels in the wrong language. This means that parents cannot read the information about formula, let alone the instructions for how to mix the formula correctly and safely.
3. Giving free formula as humanitarian aid/disaster relief. This again causes the same problem as (1), and is often labelled with the wrong language as per (2).  In an emergency situation there many not be enough clean water or fuel (to warm the milk) to make up the formula safely.
4. Undermining breastfeeding by making health claims about formula. For example, adverts for baby milk formula often mention the health benefits of the product – but compared to breast milk it is nowhere near as good.
5. Directly promoting to pregnant women and new mums. For example direct mail, free samples, parent clubs etc.
6. Promoting to health professionals. E.g. providing free gifts or even commissions.  This is banned by the International Code.
7. Lobbying governments against measures to promote breastfeeding.

So what can we do to stop this?  Well, as ‘consumers’ our main power is in how we spend our money.  So if you disagree with a company’s actions, stop buying their products.  I have decided to boycott all Nestle products.  There is a list of all the brands that Nestle profits from on the Baby Milk Action website.  I have just found out this week that the Body Shop, which up until now has been my favourite place for make up and skincare products, is one of these brands, so I now have a big dilemma.  I can’t decide whether I should add Body Shop to my personal boycott or whether that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, since I believe that the Body Shop itself has high ethical standards.  What do you think?  Leave a comment to let me know if you are joining the boycott too.

For more information see:

• Baby Milk Action
• The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN)
• World Health Organisation: Breastfeeding
• Patient UK: Breastfeeding – The Benefits

Yes, it’s time for the obligatory new year’s resolutions post! I’ll get straight to the point:

• Go for a run at least once a week, more once the evenings get lighter.
• Restart weekly yoga classes.
• Cook a new meal from scratch every fortnight, preferably using seasonal ingredients.
• Shop at the farmer’s market at least once a fortnight, instead of going to the supermarket.
• Stop eating fast food/takeaways (I’ve just read Fast Food Nation so this won’t be too hard – will review in full soon).
• Stop buying new books and use the library instead!
• Spend at least 1 hour per week working on this blog.

It’s a mixture of restarting old habits and setting up brand new ones. Wish me luck!

2009 has been a mixed bag for me in terms of gardening, but I think I have made a lot of progress. There have been several failures and one or two disasters, but lots of lessons learned, and handful of big successes.  To be honest I have enjoyed myself either way.  There is something about being out in the sunshine with your hands in the soil that you just can’t beat!

For me, the biggest success is that my garden looks much tidier and is much easier to work with than it was at the beginning of the year. I drafted in my husband to help and together we cleared all the existing beds and dug up a new one.  I am finally free from planting in pots!  I also pulled up some of the patio so now we even more space for growing vegetables. My first batch of homemade compost was ready and I have been spreading it over the beds (I am letting the weather and the worms do the hard work!) so hopefully the soil is gradually improving. I also installed a waterbutt and a second compost bin.

There were a few other highlights worth mentioning. The most surprising (I jumped out of my skin!) was finding a toad hiding in my potato planters!  We have no idea where he came from, but he hung around for a couple of days and then disappeared again.  In August, I was given an apple tree for my birthday, complete with 2 apples growing on it, which has now been planted in its new home. I also had fantastic crops of tomatoes, garlic and potatoes. I had grown tomatoes and potatoes last year, but it was my first time growing garlic this year and I was surprised how easy it was.

I have been busy experimenting as well. I got a mini-growhouse so I could start sowing seeds earlier in the year, which was fantastic. What was not so fantastic was when it blew over on a windy day and all the seedlings were scattered across the garden, so now I have a large bucket of stones on the bottom shelf acting as an anchor. Also after about mid-May it started to get too hot, and many seedlings just shrivelled up and died, so next year I will remember to take the cover off once the weather gets warmer. I also tried using lemonade bottles (with the bottoms cut off) as mini-cloches for seedlings that I had planted out. This helped to protect them from the weather as well as my cats and the army of slugs that live in my garden, and worked really well. I also found that loo rolls, cut in half across the middle, make great seedling pots.

There were also quite a lot of plants that completely failed. I won’t list them all (it’s a looong list!) but the main reasons were: being blown over in the mini-growhouse; being eaten by slugs; being dug up by my cats; and getting too hot in the mini-growhouse. I have dealt with 1 and 4 from the list now, and for number 2 I have found Slug Stop (white, non-toxic granules) works really well. Apart from the lemonade bottle cloches, I haven’t yet come up with a plan to protect plants from the cats, so this will be an aim for next year.

And finally, as I try and decide what seeds to order for this season, this is what I am planning/looking forward to (among other things) in 2010:

• My first rhubarb harvest – planted this year, so a long wait!
• Trying different varieties of tomatoes, especially plum and cherry varieties.
• Apples from my apple tree.
• Working out how to stop my cats digging everything up!
• Being self-sufficient in garlic, having planted some of the bulbs from this summer’s harvest.